Richard Gleeson
Northern News Services

Coppermine (Apr 15/02) - Betty Ann Alonak had some last-minute words of advice for her 12-year-old son, Byron, as he and an elder left for a caribou hunting trip last week.

Recuperating at Stanton Regional Hospital in Yellowknife last week, elder Buster Kailek was suffering more from an old chest injury than from frostbite on his left foot. - Richard Gleeson/NNSL photo

"I told my boy, if anything happens, look after each other. Be strong."

Something did happen. The two were caught out in a blizzard the next day. Following his mother's advice, Byron is credited with saving the life of elder Buster Kailek.

That Kailek still hunts is remarkable enough. He is 91 years old.

"He's a tough old man," Alonak said of the former reindeer herder.

Sharing a snowmachine, the two left the community on April 5, with plans to return Sunday. They headed for Kailek's cabin on the Asiak River, an hour's snowmobile ride east of town.

After spending the night at the cabin, they went hunting. Kailek shot a caribou, showing Byron his way of skinning the animal. With the meat loaded onto their qamutik they started the snowmobile and headed back to the cabin.

But a blizzard moved in, filling the air with snow. With the wind, the temperature dropped below -40 C.

In the blinding storm Kailek got disoriented. The two were about 16 kilometres from the cabin, but with no bearings they drove roughly 100 kilometres in large circles, rescuers later estimated.

Bad to worse

In the darkness they hit a rock and the snowmobile rolled. Bruised and shaken, the two decided to stay put for a while.

"We made a little tent with the tarp (from the qamutik)," Byron said. The soft-spoken Grade 5-6 student at Jimmy Hikok Ilihakvik school admitted he was frightened. "Then the next day we started walking."

With only a few hours rest, the two marched through the blizzard, which had subsided.

"Buster knew which way to go," Byron said. "He knew where the cabin was."

The two trudged through the wind and snow for, by Byron's estimation, six hours before reaching another cabin where the Asiak River empties into Coronation Gulf.

By that time, Kailek was drawing on the last of his strength. Rescuers said there was evidence in the snow that Kailek was unable to walk as he approached the cabin.

"The old man, he sort of crawled there," said Jack Himiak, a member of the Kugluktuk Search and Rescue team that later found the pair. "The young fellow, I guess he went back and helped him get into the cabin."

Sending out the cavalry

As Byron and Kailek suffered through their last few hours of their struggle toward shelter, Betty Ann Alonak's concern was growing into alarm.

"I was waiting and waiting to see if they were going to come," she said. "I kept calling Roger (Hitkolak). I know he's one of the search and rescues. He told me to get hold of the RCMP, so I did."

Though it was dark and the blizzard was still in force, Hitkolak and George Egotak fired up their snowmobiles and started out for Kailek's cabin.

The effort ended in the disheartening discovery of the empty cabin. Egotak and Hitkolak then followed the long and circular course of Kailek's snowmobile tracks. They called for more help.

Himiak and Peter Taktogon took up the search in the early hours of Sunday. They traced the tracks to the fallen snowmobile. At 5:20 a.m. they arrived at the cabin the boy and old man had managed to reach.

They opened the door to find the two in a deep sleep. The noise they made coming into the cabin did not wake them.

"It took us a long time to get (Kailek) up and going," Himiak said. "The young boy looked like he was all right. I was surprised he wasn't scared. I'm glad he was there to help the old man."

After warming them up with tea, the searchers wrapped Byron and Kailek in blankets, loaded them in qamutiks and drove gently back to the community.

Himiak emphasized the search was a team effort involving more than the four members on snowmobiles.

As Byron and Kailek were being unloaded at the community health centre, the weather started deteriorating again. By noon the wind chill was down to -47 C and visibility was down to 15 metres.

If the search had been put off until daylight, things may have turned out very differently.

Byron was released from the health centre, but Kailek was medevaced to Yellowknife for treatment of frostbite.